Having landed in theaters this summer with a critically bemoaned thud, LeBron James and the animated film in which he starred have made th...
Having landed in theaters this summer with a critically bemoaned thud, LeBron James and the animated film in which he starred have made the list of the worst cinematic abominations of 2021.
The Golden Raspberry Awards, which are commonly known as the Razzies, poked fun at the year’s worst films in a list of nominations Monday, which included a separate category for Razzie favorite Bruce Willis, allowing its voting members to decide which of the eight Willis films listed truly deserves the title of the worst of the lot, according to CNN.
“Space Jam: A New Legacy” had a plot similar to the original 1996 “Space Jam,” in which NBA legend Michael Jordan ended up taking the court alongside Bugs Bunny and other Looney Tunes characters.
James was nominated for worst actor. Under the category “Worst Screen Couples” James was mentioned along with “Any Warner Cartoon Character (or Time-Warner Product) He Dribbles on / ‘Space Jam: A New Legacy.’”
The film, which listed James among its producers, was nominated for worst picture, as well as worst re-make, ripoff or sequel.
In a press release announcing the nominations, the Razzies referred to the film as “That 115 minute Time/Warner corporate sales reel posing as a family film, Space Jam.”
James “most likely dunked his chances for basking in the cinema limelight by starring in Space Jam,” the Razzies release said.
The Razzies takes great delight in its sarcastic touch, summing up its nominations as “the excruciating musicals, thrill-free thriller rip-offs, a nearly 2 hour product placement flick and more Bruce Willis than any starving viewer could stomach.”
“Space Jam: A New Legacy” was called “forgettable nostalgia bait” by New York Post reviewer Johnny Oleksinski, who called James’s acting “cardboard.”
The site Rotten Tomatoes called the film “a shameless, tired exercise in IP-driven branding.”
Critic Katie Walsh, writing in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, called the film “an upcycled Frankenstein’s monster of intellectual property spraying a stew of Easter eggs and Halloween costumes at the viewer, praying that something sticks.”
Walsh said the film leaves viewers “feeling as if they’ve been hit by a truck driven by Bugs Bunny, synapses fried by one of Wile E. Coyote’s sticks of dynamite.”
“If that’s the rubric by which we’re measuring success, it’s indeed successful. But when it comes to cinema, this is a ransom note, not a love letter,” she wrote.
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